Letter: Pa. hunters, anglers have lots to lose Jan. 1

Saturday, December 1, 2012

To the Times:

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, 750,000 hunters spread out across Pennsylvania for the first day of rifle season in search of white tail deer. That is a lot of sportsmen and women enjoying our wooded outdoors. And in the spring, many of them will leave their tree stands and join anglers in search of their favorite fishing hole for the first day of trout season.

A recent National Wildlife Federation poll showed that hunters and anglers highly value conservation of their outdoor heritage. And they vote, particularly on issues important to protection of the land and waters that make their enjoyment of the wilds possible. That is why hunters and anglers should know what is at risk for Penn's Woods if Congress leads us off of the fiscal cliff.

To understand the risk, we need to go back to 1937, when the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, often called the Pittman-Robertson Act, became law. Prior to this, many game species of wildlife had been driven toward extinction by hunting pressure and habitat degradation. The Act took an existing 11 percent federal excise tax on ammunition and firearms and redirected that money to the Department of Interior, for distribution to the states for wildlife and habitat management. The law was later amended to include archery and related equipment - with the support of the equipment industry, because of the positive effect this money had on hunting and conservation.

This law has been a great conservation success, bringing white-tailed deer, turkey, and wood ducks back from the brink of extinction. Hunters have generated over $2.5 billion in revenue that has been used by the states for rebuilding wildlife habitat and related activities, all through their purchases of firearms and other equipment and licenses.

Fast forward to 2011, when Congress passed the Budget Control Act. As part of an agreement to resolve the debt-ceiling crisis, Congress set up a joint committee - the "super committee" - that was to figure out a way to reduce the budget deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Just in case the committee failed to reach agreement, Congress set up draconian measures to force a budget deal. It directed that automatic across-the-board cuts, known as "sequestrations," will take effect on Jan. 2, 2013 to reach the $1.2 trillion goal. If Congress does not reach a budget deal, taxes will go up since the Bush-era tax cuts will expire, and severe spending cuts must be put into effect.

And, so, what does the Budget Control Act have to do with the 75-year-old Pittman-Robertson Act? The wildlife conservation funds from this law are now targeted for sequestration. With no budget agreement, state wildlife conservation measures will lose funding at the same time funds for management of federal public lands are severely limited.

Congress has until Dec. 31 to work out a deal with President Obama to avoid falling off the fiscal cliff. If a compromise budget is not worked out, one of the oldest and most effective wildlife conservation laws in the nation would be gone, ending the funding that has made enjoyment of this fall's hunting season a possibility for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania sportsmen and women.

This may not be the biggest fish in the barrel when it comes to the budget negotiations.

But considering the value that hunters and anglers place on their conservation heritage, it would be foolish for legislators to ignore the effect their failure to reach a compromise would have on Pennsylvania's wildlife conservation programs, and Penn's Woods itself.